Colerain has image problem

Jun. 13, 2013

When most people think of Colerain Township, they picture traffic-clogged Colerain Avenue with its endless restaurants and retail stores, car dealerships and auto body shops, as far as the eye can see.

If the main drag doesn’t come to mind, it’s probably Northgate Mall off of Interstate 275 or Rumpke, the region’s largest trash dump and recycler.

But in recent years, Colerain has also garnered a reputation as crime-ridden and overtaken by a lower-income crowd – contrary to statistics, which show a steady decrease in crime and a stable middle-class population, though the number of residents living in poverty is on the rise.

But it’s the negative impressions the township must refute, says Administrator Jim Rowan, and mold the township’s image as one that’s prosperous and welcoming as communities everywhere jockey for new residents and try to keep current ones, while scouting for new ways to balance budgets after cuts from the state threw many local governments’ finances off kilter.

And Colerain’s budget problems are particularly daunting.

If the township doesn’t find ways to generate more revenue and cut where it can, residents will see their parks, recreation center, roads and levels of public safety services suffer, township officials warn, even as some residents already lament recent cuts.

All the more reason polishing Colerain’s image is an important part of the township’s plan toward stability and survival, Rowan says, “rather than hit the nuclear button and blow up all the things our community likes.”

A LITTLE BIT OF EVERYTHING

Colerain is one of the oldest communities in the region, settled 223 years ago by Irish immigrant John Dunlap, 13 years before Ohio joined the union.

Historically farmland, today Colerain is home to 58,456 people, and at nearly 43 square miles is geographically one of the largest townships in Ohio.

Most of Colerain’s roughly 1,200 businesses are off Colerain Avenue, but much of the township is still rural. Yet few, if any, of the large family farms that once dominated the township still operate.

Today the farmland has been converted to other uses, including suburban neighborhoods, but also hundreds of acres of nature preserves, a vineyard, golf course and an equestrian boarding and riding facility. Small farms still dot northern and western portions of the township.

Colerain officials want to play up these features, along with the convenience of shopping and restaurants on Colerain Avenue.

“We still have homes with dirt floors and no running water, and we have half-a-million-dollar homes and a guy with an indoor Olympic-sized pool and a helicopter,” says Colerain Police Chief Dan Meloy, who has lived in the township all his life. “We are not a cookie-cutter community.”

Ken Lohr, president of the Colerain Community Association and a resident since 1990, doesn’t think much has changed since he moved in.

Lohr enjoys his quiet street, his neighbors and property, which backs up to Pebble Creek Golf Course. He likes the convenience of shopping on Colerain Avenue.

Life in Colerain, in fact, is great, even if “things aren’t kept up the way they used to be,” he says.

Neglected properties, in foreclosure or unkempt, and media attention to crime – spread more readily in recent years by the internet and now mobile devices – hurt Colerain, Meloy says.

Despite cases of violence like the homicide at the InTown Suites on Saturday, crime is down in Colerain, he says, and township officials continue to look for out-of-the-box ideas to continue the decline – like opening a one-stop shop this fall with all the information a victim of domestic violence might need.

“People used to ask where Colerain Township was and I’d ask: ‘Do you know where Northgate Mall is?’” Meloy says. “Sadly enough, over time, it became other things.”

IMAGE JUST ONE PART OF STABILITY PLAN

The township’s image is being recreated amidst the backdrop of financial insecurity, and at a Town Hall meeting earlier this month, residents were visibly irritated.

It was the second of such community meetings this year, organized to engage residents in the budgeting process, says Rowan, who was hired by Colerain about a year and a half ago after two years as chief financial officer for Princeton Schools. He spent much of his career working for the Ohio Auditor’s Office, reviewing community budgets from all over the state.

Since his arrival, Rowan has instituted a number of changes – including the creation of parks fees and cuts at the recreation center but also demanding more transparency in government and higher levels of customer service.

But the township’s budget problems remain, highlighted at the latest town hall meeting. After about 45 minutes of presentations of what officials acknowledged was “the worst-case scenario,” including far fewer police officers and firefighters, a shuttered fire station, and cuts to recreation programs and parks, Rowan presented his alternative.

“We currently run an annual deficit of approximately $500,000 a year,” says Rowan. “We are eating into (the township’s $6 million) reserves as we speak. Without future funding for our police department, we will be out of money by 2017.”

Rowan is suggesting deeper cuts, possibly a police levy this fall and creation of a vacant licensing fee for the owners of vacant properties that would raise some money and encourage owners to take better care of their properties.

The plan also hinges on creation of a joint economic development district, or JEDD – like the one Sycamore Township voters approved in May on the Kenwood shopping area. That would impose an earnings tax on employees in the district and, along with spending the township’s reserves down to $2 million, get Colerain to 2022 when it pays off its debts for construction projects like the administration building and Heritage Park, saving roughly $700,000 a year, Rowan says.

Sycamore’s JEDD is expected to generate $4 million each year, but it’s too early to predict how much Colerain could raise, Rowan says.

SENSE OF TEAMWORK, PATIENCE REQUIRED

Longtime resident and former trustee Diana Lynn Rielage sees the effort to rebrand Colerain as an extension of an earlier effort by trustees. A decade ago, the township’s own residents didn’t identify with Colerain at all.

“You’d ask, ‘Where are you from?’ and the answer would be ‘Cincinnati’ or (Colerain neighborhoods like) Groesbeck or Dunlap,” Rielage said.

Not recognizing Colerain as home created a disjointed feeling in the township between residents and their government, Rielage said.

So they created community events like the Colerain Fourth of July Spectacular and erected signs letting people know when they’re coming and going from Colerain. Rielage is disappointed that the Fourth of July event is canceled this year.

“I raised my kids here. It’s a great place to raise your family,” Rielage says. “But I’m a little concerned now with ... all the cuts they’ve made. I see them cutting some of the things that we may not see the repercussions of immediately,” like summer camp and zoning inspectors.

But Tom Reininger, who co-owns Walnut Creek Stables, a 135-acre horse farm and riding facility, believes Colerain is on the right track and feels for the local government, which has dealt with declining support from the state.

Reininger has been a resident since childhood and remembers when Northgate Mall was an airport.

It’s been just in the last decade that Colerain has gotten control of its zoning code – he knows this because he sits on the Zoning Board of Appeals. He thinks the township is embarking on important projects, like controlling signage and sprucing up the area around Northgate Mall, which is also trying to reinvent itself with a new design and new stores.

Reininger offers a farmer’s metaphor. “If you have ever baled hay, it takes time for it to cure, you’re subject to the weather and you have to be patient,” Reininger says. “It doesn’t mean you can’t work toward a goal.” ⬛

An earlier of this version of this story said Colerain Township is the largest township, geographically, in the state. But at 42.9 square miles, Colerain Township is less than one square mile smaller than Madison Township in northwest Ohio, which is 43.7 square miles.